Jeff Cassman, Author at Jeff Cassman

Data Visualization for Marketers: Do’s, Dont’s, and 6 Expert Tools

Marketers have access to more data than they need. Your time on this page has already generated data on the pop-ups you close, how fast you read, and where your cursor stops.

To extract value from the numbers in your analytics tools and on your dashboard, you need to organize them.

Bar graphs, pie charts, and matrices are data visualization tools that reveal trends and key findings in an understandable and engaging format.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use data visualization to scale your organization through partner networks, sales enablement, and product-led content. We’ll also look at advanced data modeling tools to automate your data representation.

How to use data visualization to accelerate growth

A graph that points up and to the right quickly signals growth. Likewise, large vs. small bars or bubbles help viewers grasp comparisons faster than they can glean them from a spreadsheet of numbers.

How you present information is critical to getting viewers to understand what they’re looking at and getting buy-in, whoever the audience may be.

Marketers use data visuals in two ways:

Internally. Representing data to stakeholders and team members to understand the market, progress, financials, etc.
Externally. Demonstrating findings from research or analytics in content.

Whether your audience is a group of internal stakeholders or customers, data visuals can be a powerful tool to accelerate growth. Let’s look at how to do this through three channels: partners, sales, and product.

Collaborate with partners on data

You can use data visuals to create sales enablement presentations and case studies for business partners.

Find data points and analytics that align with your partners’ business goals. Use these to create graphics that address their challenges.

UK-based gym Everyone Active and Weight Watchers (WW) formed a brand partnership in 2021.

WW research revealed that 41% of British people admitted to a weight increase during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns, and 65% of those surveyed gained seven pounds or more.

Everyone Active marketers used this information to emphasize the importance of working out on staying healthy, creating a number of marketing materials and promotions that align the brands.

Help sales reps communicate with leads and other departments

When designed as sales enablement assets, data visuals can align sales and marketing teams.

Data visuals make it easy for your sales teams to:

Help leads with decision-making by showing them how you’ve helped other businesses (or individuals) grow their brand;
Showcase industry trends through graphs and charts;
Speak the same language as the marketing team and work towards the same goals.

Coordinate with sales to identify customer concerns. Then collect data for the related metrics and create visuals.

Let’s say your company sells an…

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Top 6 Best Salon POS Systems of 2022 – In-Depth Review

Our recommendation for the best salon POS system is Square POS because it’s user-friendly and intuitive and offers several excellent features, like automated messaging tools and social media integration, to help you grow your business. Start your 30-day free trial today!

Beauticians, hairdressers, aestheticians, manicurists, and massage therapists need a full-fledged, professional system to organize and manage their services. They have drastically different requirements compared to your standard retailers and restaurateurs.

A salon point-of-sale (POS) system is purpose-built to simplify and streamline salon operations. Alongside traditional features like client transaction management and sales and customer data handling, you get several industry-specific features like online booking, appointment scheduling, and membership billing.

When choosing a salon POS system, consider your salon’s specific needs. Here are my top six recommendations to help you narrow down your choices.

The Top 6 Best Salon POS Systems

After reviewing some of the most highly recommended vendors in the market, I found Square POS to be the best salon POS system for most. It also offers specialized features (for example, automated messaging tools, social media integration, and pre-payment and no-show options) that can actively help your business grow. Start your 30-day free trial today!

Keep reading to know why these vendors made it on the list.

Company logos for our best salon POS reviews.

Match Your Scenario to the Right Salon POS Solution

Before exploring the best POS systems for salons, consider whether you really need one. To offer you the most suitable recommendation, here are potential scenarios where getting a POS makes sense for your salon:

1. You want better inventory management

Best option: Square POS

Square POS is undoubtedly the best POS system when it comes…

7 Ways to Teach Humility in Team Meetings

You can be right in many ways and dead wrong in others. I asked a world-renowned leadership expert what humility had to do with success. He said, “Nothing.”

Teach humility if results matter.*

Define humility:

Always think of humility in terms of behaviors, not theories.

Humility is a set of behaviors that express interest in the interest of others.

Humble leaders stand up for values even when it’s uncomfortable.

Model humility to teach humility:

#1. Practice vulnerability in public.

Let people see your warts. Don’t whine. Apologize when you screw up. Say, “I’m learning.” Arrogance knows. Humility learns.

#2. Never brag.

“… the more they underrated themselves, the more highly they were perceived as leaders. We assume this is caused by a combination of humility, high personal standards, and a continual striving to be better.” Zenger/Folkman

#3. Ask for help.

Mention a leadership behavior you’re working on and say, “I need your help developing this.”

#4. Include others early, often, and frequently.

“What do you think?” is a compliment when asked sincerely.

7 ways to teach humility in team meetings:

Use stories. Ask team members to name a humble leader/person they know. “What caused you to label them humble? How could you be like that person today?” Use ‘you’, not we. Be sure to say, “Today.”
Value service. Regularly ask, “Who are you serving today? How?”
Discuss each other’s strengths AND weaknesses.
Discuss what each team member has learned from mistakes. “How have mistakes changed you?”
Ask, “What are some humble responses to disagreement, challenge, or confrontation we could practice today?”
Ask people to explain something they’re learning.
Give reports on the lives of employees. Tell us about the family of one of your employees. What’s important to each person who reports to you?

Tip: Say hard things with humanity.

What would you do if you planned to teach humility in team meetings?

* Do Humble CEOs Matter?

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These Cruel Statements Lower A Person’s IQ By 25%

The statement that massively reduces a person’s IQ.

Being socially rejected massively reduces a person’s effective IQ, research finds.

People told, “you will end up alone in life” experienced drops in analytical reasoning skills of 30 percent.

Their IQs also dropped around 25 percent.

Not only does rejection lower IQ, it also makes people more aggressive, other studies have shown.

The results suggest that intelligence may have evolved primarily to facilitate social relations.

For the study, people took a personality test and some were then told (falsely) that it indicated they would end up alone in life.

Afterwards they were given an IQ test.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“In all three studies, people exhibited significant cognitive decrements after they were told that they were likely to end up alone in life.

Thus, the prospect of social exclusion reduced people’s capacity for intelligent thought.

Moreover, the decrements in intelligent performance qualified as large effects every time.”

The researchers think that people’s IQ drops because they are in distress:

“…we can best explain the pattern of cognitive decrements by proposing that social exclusion constitutes a threatening, aversive event but that people strive to suppress their emotional distress, and the resulting drain on their executive function impairs their controlled processes.”

In other words, being told they would end up alone made it harder for them to concentrate, because they were trying to suppress negative emotions.

There is an intimate link between intelligence and social relations, the authors write:

“Our results are more consistent with the view that
intelligence evolved as a means to support and facilitate social relations rather than to compensate for the absence of their advantages.

[…]

Our findings could even be taken to suggest that people responded as if being excluded from social groups removed the need for intelligent thought.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Baumeister et al., 2002).

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Is Email Marketing Dead? – DigitalMarketer

“Email marketing is DEAD!”
“AI is taking over the inbox!”
“Why hire a copywriter when I can just use email templates?!”
“Who needs an email list when I have a large social following?”

Um….. stop right there and listen up, because I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

THREE little secrets to be exact.

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of misconceptions floating around the cyberspace when it comes to email marketing. So in this blog, we’re going to talk about the three biggest Email Marketing Myths & Misconceptions…

AND I’m going to fill you in on the SECRET WEAPON that’ll give you a massive advantage and leg-up over any competition.

Alright, now let’s get started with myth-busting.

Myth #1 – Email Marketing Is DEAD

This is a myth that I’ve been hearing ever since I got my start in the online marketing industry… over a decade ago! And guess what?

The rumours were wrong back then and they’re STILL wrong today.

No matter what you heard at the latest online summit you attended… Email Marketing is STILL alive and well—and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon!

In fact, Email Marketing is the single best way to market your brand or business, increase your revenue, and cash in on more conversions.

That’s right. It’s better than ads, better than social media, and better than organic traffic…

I said it.

In fact, I did my FIRST launch back in 2020 and made almost 6-figures by sending just 8 emails to my list of 2300 subscribers. Yup.

But don’t just take my word for it, here are some stats to prove it. It is estimated that there are 4 BILLION active email users right now (and that number is projected to go up, btw).

Email marketing consistently delivers the highest ROI of all marketing channels – earning on average $42 for every dollar spent… and in case you don’t want to do the math on that…

That’s an ROI of 4200%!! I don’t know of a single brand or business that wouldn’t love to see numbers like that.

And just in case gaining a massive ROI isn’t enough to convince you… this probably will:

According to MarketingSherpa, email is STILL the most preferred marketing channel that most consumers want businesses to communicate with them through. YES, even Millennials and gen-Z-ers prefer email to social media.

And not only is email your consumer’s favorite way of communicating… it should be your favourite too! And that’s because your list is YOURS. It belongs to YOU. Not Facebook, not Instagram. YOU.

And when you use Email as your preferred method of communication, ALL you have to do to get your message heard is make sure your emails aren’t landing in the spam folder. You’re not held captive by the algorithm Gods, “platform rules,” or having to keep up with the latest trends to get your content seen.

When you take just a moment to step back and look at the facts,…

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7 Questions to Discuss When You Integrate New Team Members

Hire someone who doesn’t fit.

A team of round-edges needs a few square-pegs to shake things up. But fasten your seatbelts when you integrate new team members.

Hire someone who doesn’t fit if you want to expand team capability. A team of smooth-edged dreamers needs some sharp-edged doers. Apart from doers, dreamers begin too much and finish too little.

Don’t lose the value of square-peg-people by shaving off their edges.

Before you integrate new team members:

Get clear on the behaviors and beliefs that make your team work now. Identify nonnegotiable team operating principles.

No interrupting.
Begin on time and end early.
Candor with kindness.
Constructive dissent. Disagree in search of a better way, not to be adversarial.
Eagerness to help. We’re in it for each other and for ourselves.
Value relationship, results, transparency, and laughter.
Public commitments. Clear accountability and follow-through.

Questions to discuss before you integrate new team members:

What do we do well right now?
How did we get good at that?
What would we like to be better at?
What do we like about our team dynamics?
What would make team dynamics even better?

When you integrate new team members declare non-negotiables in behavioral terms.

Questions to discuss with potential new team members:

Could you describe the best team you were ever on?
How might others describe the way you interact in team meetings?
What beliefs and behaviors are essential to effective teamwork?
What do you enjoy about teams? What’s challenging?
What would your former teammates say you added to the team?
What do you hope this team adds to you?
What do you hope to add to this team?

Take charge of the process when you integrate new team members. If you’re on a great team someone worked to build it.

What are your biggest concerns when you integrate new team members?

How might leaders protect team culture and become a better team after integrating new members?

Added resource: Successfully Integrate New Members into Your Team

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Search Engine Marketing Starter Guide: Learn The Basics

Want to get started with search engine marketing right now? Neil Patel Digital is our recommended SEM agency thanks to its comprehensive range of services and decades of experience. Bag yourself a free consultation with its experts.

Visibility on Google is of the utmost importance. The goal is to target potential customers at the right time, i.e., when they’re actively searching for a product or service they need.

The problem is that many early-stage companies and those in highly competitive industries find it difficult to rank on search engines with SEO alone.

As such, search engine marketing or SEM is needed to capture the attention of searchers by placing key pages and offers at the top of Google. This increases visibility, potential traffic to your website, and conversions.

In this post, you’ll learn the basics of SEM and how to implement an effective SEM strategy.

The 6 Best SEO Services for Search Engine Marketing

We looked at the results, expertise, customer experience, and resources of the best SEO agencies in the industry. Here are our top picks:

How Does Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Work?

To do search engine marketing well, you must set a specific goal and create paid ads aimed at meeting that goal.

For instance, you might start with a landing page that contains an alluring offer like this one from LinkedIn Learning:

Screenshot of a LinkedIn Learning landing page. Your Google ad links to a landing page that encourages users to take action, helping you meet your goals.

The goal here is to get as many people as possible to enter the sales funnel by offering them a free demo.

Then, you’ll perform keyword research to understand what search terms…

Episode 1916 Scott Adams PART2: Seasonal Flu Deaths Confirmed Fake, Dems Think Narrative Is The Problem

Content:

Screen Apnea is a thing
Jake Tapper removed from prime time
How seasonal flu deaths are counted
Gavin Newsom vs. democrat narratives
Things that died this year from scrutiny
Twitter’s election integrity group
If you would like to enjoy this same content plus bonus content from Scott Adams, including micro-lessons on lots of useful topicsto build your talent stack, please see scottadams.locals.com for full access to that secret treasure.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Data Storytelling: How to Inspire & Convince with Data

Investing in data lets you make strategic business decisions based on insights rather than instinct or opinion. It reduces risk and drives smarter investments.

But data has no value without understanding. While the data might make sense to you, it might appear as meaningless numbers on a page to people outside of your role.

The benefits of data lie in the way you communicate it.

In this article, you’ll learn why data storytelling is an important skill and how to use data presentation and visualization to influence your audience.

What is data storytelling?

Data storytelling is the process of transforming data findings into an understandable, relatable story for a wider audience. It simplifies the complex and presents insights in basic terms to influence decision-making, engage customers and stakeholders, and inspire action.

The importance of data storytelling: putting insights into context

Data is a critical contributor to growth. Its power is in the what: how many sales, how much traffic, how often actions are taken, etc.

Without analysis, data lacks the why to provide context: why do those numbers matter, why are those figures important, why should we care?

As Effective Data Storytelling: How to Drive Change author Brent Dykes says, “People hear statistics, but they feel stories.”

Also from Dykes:

Your data may hold tremendous amounts of potential value, but not an ounce of value can be created unless insights are uncovered and translated into actions or business outcomes. [via Forbes]

Humans are hard-wired to share stories as a way of communicating information. It’s in our nature to need them. We think in stories, remember in stories, and turn experiences into stories.

On this, Jonathan Haidt, author of The Righteous Mind, says:

The human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.

An exercise at Stanford University, carried out by Made to Stick author and professor Chip Heath, shows how stories resonate.

Heath divided his students into groups and gave them statistics on crime patterns in the United States. Half the students in the group then had to give a one-minute presentation in support of non-violent crime being a serious problem. The other half had to give a one-minute presentation on non-violent crime not being a serious problem.

In each presentation, the typical student used 2.5 statistics. One in 10 students told a story. When the students were asked to recall the speeches, only 5% remembered a statistic, but 63% remembered the stories.

Data storytelling takes this in-built attraction to story-led communication and pairs it with visuals to simplify learning.

Humans respond extremely well to visuals. Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules, found that we remember 10% of information we hear after three days, but pair the information with an image, and we remember 65%.

This is why data, visuals, and story go so well together. For example, this visualization on alcohol consumption by PSResearch for Drinkaware is much…

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Leaders Need Support, Too – Leadership Freak

Leaders Need Support, Too

Book Giveaway!!

20 copies available!!

Leave a comment on this guest post by Libby Hoffman to become eligible for one of 20 complimentary copies of her new book The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out.

Deadline for eligibility is 11/12/2022. International winners will receive electronic version.

As a leader, you are likely focused on enhancing others’ work and results. But focusing solely on others’ needs sets you up for burnout. To ensure your ability to support others over the long haul, consider creating a community of support for yourself.

As a nonprofit leader, I realized the importance of this and gathered a “Wisdom Circle” to support me as a person and a leader. Regular gatherings, whether in person or virtual, refresh my vision, sharpen my discernment, and renew my energy for my work.

How to build support with a wisdom circle:

Identify people who are invested in your success and aligned with your values. These may be people formally involved in your organization or not – but they should see and support the best in you. Invite them to be a part of your support network.

Create uninterrupted time, away from your day-to-day work, and a dedicated space to meet with your wisdom circle. Depending on your budget, this may be virtual but if resources allow, being in-person is powerful.

Allow others to help and hold you. Receiving support from others requires vulnerability. In convening my first wisdom circle, it took self-knowledge to recognize my need, confidence to ask for help, faith to trust others could provide it, and humility to receive the support.

Make wisdom circle gatherings a regular part of your leadership journey. Receiving from others is not a one-time activity. Instead, you need to refuel along the way, getting regular support from others in order to continue your own leadership and service.

Finding support will ensure you can lead over the long haul, balancing your own needs with the needs of those you serve, and creating a cyclical flow of support that nourishes everybody.

Do you have a circle of wise supporters to turn to on your leadership journey?

If not, who might you invite to be part of your support network?

Libby Hoffman is the founder and president of Catalyst for Peace, co-founder of Fambul Tok (family talk) in Sierra Leone, and author of The Answers Are There: Building Peace from the Inside Out. Learn more at www.LibbyHoffman.com.

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